Covering all the bases with whatever's bouncing around in my head today!

What I Did On My Vacation

Boy, I go on vacation and the Phillies just go totally sucky against the A.L. East last week. I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t paying attention to them while I was away, or I would have been in a really foul mood.

So what was I doing in the meantime? Here’s the rundown on my recent vacation.

“Bakin’ potatoes, bakin’ in the sun…”

First stop was a Sunday afternoon game in Baltimore, with the O’s hosting the Braves for an interleague matchup. Driving south from Philly, the sun came out and it looked to be a beautiful day. No traffic problems, either, so things were going well.

Until we got off the exit for Camden Yards, and the ramp split with no indication of which one we should take. Of course, our first choice was the wrong one. It put us onto the street, unable to turn into the parking area. After getting turned around, we thought the problem was solved, but no, we were in the wrong lane to turn into the parking lots, and the road turned back into a ramp which put us right back on 95 South. Aargh! After getting off at the next exit and maneuvering through the cloverleaf of ramps, we ended up heading north again, and this time took the other split after exiting. This dropped us right into the parking areas, but unfortunately these were the “preferred” parking areas, not for us peons. As there are absolutely no signs directing traffic to the general parking areas, we stopped several times to ask various people who looked like they should know. Finally, we finally parked the car and began making our way to the ballpark.

Note to Baltimore: better signage would be nice!

Fortunately, we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to get there, and still had ample opportunity to get something to eat before the game started. On the advice of She-Fan, Jane Heller, we both got the turkey platter from Boog’s BBQ. They were excellent – thanks Jane!

Finally, we made our way to our seats to enjoy the game.

Brad Bergesen was on the mound for the O’s, and quickly retired the side to start the game. Derek Lowe, starting for the Braves, was not so lucky. He gave up 7 runs in 2 1/3 innings.

The Orioles clobbered the Braves, 11-2. The Braves’ only runs came on a pair of solo homers by backup catcher David Ross, who replaced Brian McCann midway through the game.

Before the game, while walking along Eutaw Street on our way to eat, I’d noticed brass markers in the ground noting where various home runs had landed. Here is one for Jim Thome, on the left below:

While walking out after the game, I noticed people pointing at something on the wall of the warehouse building, and taking a picture of it. So of course I had to see what it was. Embedded in the wall is a marker showing where Ken Griffey Jr. hit the warehouse on the fly, shown above right. Wow, what a shot that must have been!

Back to the car, then, and we continued south towards Myrtle Beach.

“The way the beach is kissed by the sea…”

My husband has an uncle who lives in Myrtle Beach, and he so kindly invited us to stay at his house. Woo hoo, free lodging! I have to say that Myrtle Beach itself is not quite what I expected, kind of like a southern version of Wildwood, for those familiar with the Jersey shore. But some of the surrounding areas are beautiful, such as Pawleys Island.

After some sightseeing, we took in a minor league game at BB&T Coastal Field, between the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and the visiting Lynchburg Hillcats.

The Pelicans and Hillcats are the advanced-A teams for the Braves and Pirates, respectively, in the Carolina League.

The game turned out to be a double-header due to an earlier rainout, and was scheduled to start at 6 pm. But of course, there was a little more rain, and things finally got underway around 7. So I had a little time to wander around and check things out.

By the looks of this Hillcat, the relief pitchers don’t do a whole lot before the games. While his teammates were dutifully stretching on the field, he was looking pretty relaxed in the bullpen:

One of the unique events at Pelicans’ games occurs between innings, when Deuce, a yellow lab, delivers new balls to the umpire. Fortunately, Deuce did his duty (but not doody) without incident:

Game 1 was a quick, well-pitched affair, which was won by the Pelicans, 1-0. Minor league double-headers are only seven innings per game, and this one clocked in at a brisk 1:59. There was a half-hour break between games, though, so we only stayed for a couple innings of Game 2, since by now it was getting pretty late. The Hillcats took this one, 10-3.

“Don’t know much about history…”

The next day we took a drive to Charleston, about an hour and a half south of Myrtle Beach. Charleston is a really picturesque city, full of southern charm, and also very historical. We decided to take a ferry ride to visit Fort Sumter, the site of the first shots of the Civil War. Located at the confluence of Charleston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean, the fort was ideally situated to protect the port of Charleston from attack via the ocean. Under Federal control in 1861, it was fired upon and seized by the Confederates, thus starting the Civil War.

So what could this possibly have to do with baseball? Check out this plaque, honoring the Union garrison defending the fort during the initial bombardment:

Hard to read, hmm? A closer look reveals this:

Abner Doubleday, purported inventor of baseball! No, I didn’t stand there and read the whole plaque to find this, and no, I didn’t know it was there. These kinds of things just jump out at me and catch my eye.

Though the myth of Doubleday’s invention of baseball has been pretty much disproved, he had a successful military career, retiring with the rank of Major General, having taken part in the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg.

“Here comes the rain, here she comes again…”

Blech! Rain!

Due to the uncooperativeness of Mother Nature, our plans to see a Nationals game last weekend never came to fruition.

“You make me laugh, give me your autograph…”

On Monday, we took the kids to the annual Phillies Phestival. For my son and I, it was our fifth time at this great event, but my daughter and husband were Phestival virgins. I warned them to be prepared to wait in lines, but everything went very smoothly.

The Phestival is the Phillies’ annual fundraiser to help fight ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This year’s Phestival raised a record total of $867,670; since 1984 the Phillies have raised over $11 million to help fight ALS.

Here are some of my photos of various Phillies:

Top row:John Mayberry, Jr. – John seemed happy just to be here;Cole Hamels – I’m sorry Cole, but you need a haircut!;Pedro Feliz – for some reason, Pedro spent much of the time standing rather than sitting.

Middle row:Antonio Bastardo – this is about as much of a smile as I saw from him;J.C. Romero – paired with Bastardo, J.C. was the opposite, very smiley;Matt Stairs – he looks like someone who should be fixing my appliances, rather than playing baseball.

Bottom row:Chase Utley – not sure who he’s looking at, but it wasn’t me :-(Ryan Madson – Ryan has one of the most illegible signatures I’ve seen;Jayson Werth – why all the sunglasses on these guys?

My creative fan award goes to this guy, who was waiting in the line to have his picture taken with the 1980 and 2008 World Series trophies:

I realized after I’d walked halfway around the concourse that I should have asked him his name, so I could properly credit him here. Always learning! I’ll remember that for next time.

Later on, I ran into Jenn from Phillies Phollowers. Always good to run into fellow bloggers! After that, it was time to call it a night, and we headed home with our goodies. My kids are now looking forward to next year’s event already!

“School’s out for the summer…”

Yep, until September the kids are home all day. In an effort to keep peace in the house, and keep my sanity, my blogging will be less frequent. But rest assured I’ll be here (just not every day).

(since I had so much fun with lyric snippets last time, I decided to do it again. Whoever can identify the most songs will get a shout-out in my next post!)

Oh no! D.Lowe lost.
Sue,
Wow! Even with the rain, you did a lot! I love the doggie taking the balls to the umps. I have been taking some pictures of fans and I have not asked for their names. I guess I am going to start doing that too. Thanks!
Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com/

Great photos as usual, Sue. The ones of the players are really professional, and I loved the fan wearing the trophy hat! Glad you enjoyed Boog’s BBQ at Camden Yards. Sounds like the rest of the trip was fun too. I’ve never been to Charleston and always wanted to go.

Yeah! Nice photos! Booooooo…crappy game tonight! UGH. SO sick of the stupidity!
As for my blog, I think it is just an MLBlogs thing…I have that happen with a few blogs at random too…happens with Julia’s ALL the time…I think it may be due to heavy traffic or just some weird glitch. Sorry! Hoping it goes away!

Wow!! I love your pix. I didn’t recognize Chan Ho at all. What’s with all that hair?? It seems that I recognized the names of all those ex Dodgers ie D Lowe, David Ross. We kinda need D Lowe now even with his ERA. I love Camden Yards. Your picture is great. What a nice vacation you had!!!! Thanks for sharing.http://catlovesthedodgers.mlblogs.com

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